BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

Maybe so, but most likely you still have several hours of the day available. For instance, when you get home from work, instead of watching the nightly news or staring at sitcoms on television, you could spend your evening in the Word. That’s what Ken and I did. When we first found out about the goodness of God and how to access it by faith, we spent almost all our free time listening to preaching tapes and studying the Bible. There were wars being fought in the world and economic upheavals going on at that time, but we missed them because we were too focused on the Word to read the newspaper or watch TV. I will admit, we did have a bit of an advantage over other people. For one thing, we were desperate. We were like the men who gathered around David when he was being persecuted by Saul in the Old Testament. We were discontented, in distress and in debt (1 Samuel 22:2). In fact, not only were we in debt, we were without. We didn’t have a lot of the things we needed, and we were tired of living that way. For another thing, we had very little else to do. Although Ken was a student at Oral Roberts University and was busy in the daytime, I was home with the children. I didn’t have a car and I didn’t have any money to spend. (It’s amazing how much free time you have when you have no car and no money!) So when we realized we’d finally found the answer to our problems, we sold out to God’s Word. We listened to it, read it and talked about it night and day. We went after the wisdom of God like other people go after gold and silver. We didn’t get everything we wanted overnight, but our hearts began to change immediately. Within less than a year we were out of debt and were increasing financially, as well as in every other way. We’ve been proclaiming God’s goodness ever since! In one way or another, for more than 47 years now, we’ve been saying what the Bible says in Psalm 145:1-4, 7: “I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever. Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name for ever and ever. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts. They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness, and shall sing of thy righteousness.” Over the years, we’ve discovered such praises are extremely evangelistic. People get interested in God when they hear about His goodness and His blessings. They’re drawn to Him when they see Christians living in joy, prosperity, health and peace—especially when they find out God wants them to have those things too. Most unbelievers (and even some Christians) think God is the one who’s been causing them problems. Like Eve, they’ve fallen for the lie of the devil. But when they hear about and witness the goodness of God manifesting in our lives, they discover the truth: It’s not God but the devil who has been ruining everything for them. He’s the one who’s been making them sick, and tying up their money so their family doesn’t have enough food to eat, or clothes to wear or a good place to live. Once people see how mean the devil really is, they’ll turn against him and run straight into the loving arms of God. They’ll make Jesus the Lord of their lives and come out from under the devil’s dominion. If they keep growing in faith, before long they’ll be talking just like you and me and Oral Roberts. They’ll be preaching the good news and saying to everyone who will listen, “God is a good God!” V ************************************* Points to Get You There: God’s Goodness Nothing will make your faith grow faster than learning about the goodness of God. When you have faith in God’s goodness, you can wake up every morning with joy and excitement, thinking, What marvelous thing does God have for me today? Here are some points to get you there. 1) God’s original plan for mankind had nothing bad in it. Genesis 1:31: “And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.” 2) The devil messed up that plan by convincing Eve to doubt God’s goodness. John 8:44: “There is no truth in [the devil]. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” 3) Jesus has undone what the devil did. 1 John 3:8: “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.” 4) The goodness God has stored up for you in Christ surpasses your wildest imagination. 1 Corinthians 2:9: “What eye has not seen and ear has not heard and has not entered into the heart of man, [all that] God has prepared (made and keeps ready) for those who love Him” ("The Amplified Bible"). 5) The more you fill your heart with God’s Word, the more of those good things you can receive from Him. Mark 4:24: “The measure [of thought and study] you give [to the truth you hear] will be the measure [of virtue and knowledge] that comes back to you—and more [besides] will be given to you who hear” ("AMP"). BVOV : 31

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